breaking news here on r.t.e. at least two people are reported dead and several others confirmed injured after an apparent suicide bombing outside the u.s. embassy in the turkish capital ankara. to the police state the united states has become. torture executive executions and a taste for covering it all up cia whistleblower john kiriakou tells r t why he turned against the gauge and see. as france declares victory in its three week long campaign against islamists in mali chilling accounts emerge of the human cost of the intervention.

you're watching our live from moscow and we start with breaking news this hour at least two people have reportedly been killed after an explosion struck the u.s. embassy in the turkish capital of ankara and the attack was reportedly carried out by a suicide bomber more details now from our correspondent paula sleep here she's the head of our middle east bureau paula bring us up to date what are we hearing about this attack i'm seeing lots of conflicting reports on social networks. well the attack only just happened so the details at this stage of very sketchy what i can tell you is that an explosion has taken place outside the american city in the capital turkish city of and who are now we understand that several people have been wounded ambulances as well as emergency services are on their way to the scene some of them have already arrived but it's not yet clear who was behind this attack we are hearing from eyewitnesses that there was

a huge bang that shook everything and there is smoke that is coming out of the american embassy and as you say we continue to see these pictures but really at this stage the first details are still sketchy. paula u.s. embassies have been of course frequent targets across north africa and the middle east can we just speculate a little as to what could be the cause of this anything linked with recent events in the region. what we certainly have seen an increase in violence and anger that has been targeted against waste in embassies particularly the embassy of the united states it was just in september a couple of months ago when the most notorious attack on a american diplomatic mission in the libyan city of benghazi took place now four people were killed in that attack including the american ambassador to libya christopher stevens just a few days ago britain's foreign office warned of a potential threat against the u.k. embassy in tripoli and britain has avoided has asked all its citizens to try as far

as possible and avoid traveling to libya out of fear of this growing anger and potential threats against the british embassy there back in september if you remember there was the flighting of the trailer of and muslim video now that caused incredible across the region and we saw in places such as the capital sudanese city of khartoum british german as well as american embassies being attacked so what we're witnessing really is a chain of events that. is seeing anger targeted at waste in embassies it's coming at a time that this region is in flux because of the arab spring we've witnessed what is happening in syria where we have ongoing daily violence and certainly what we've seen is this growing anger venting itself on the streets right archies paullus there bring us the latest live on this attack on the u.s. embassy in ankara we of course will continue to follow this story it is

a developing one throughout the hour and throughout the day here on r t thanks paula. in other news the first man convicted over america's torture program is now on call waiting to start a thirty month prison sentence but decorated cia veteran john kiriakou played no part in the interrogations he was instead convicted overly after blowing washington's then secret program wide open speaking to archie he told us of just what it is he's being punished for. first of all my case was not about leaking my case was about torture when i blew the whistle on torture in december of two thousand and seven the justice to department here in the united states began investigating me and never stopped investigating me until they were able to patch together. charge and force me into taking a plea agreement and i'll add another thing to when i took the plea in october of last year the judge said that she thought the plea was was fair and appropriate but

once the courtroom was packed full of reporters last friday she decided that it was not long enough and if she had had the ability to she would have given me ten years in this post nine eleven atmosphere that we find ourselves in we have been losing our civil liberties incrementally over the last decade to the point where we don't even realize how much of a police state the united states has become you know ten years ago the thought of the national security agency spying on american citizens and intercepting their emails would have been anathema to americans and now it's just a part of normal business. the idea that that our government would be using drone aircraft to assassinate american citizens who have never seen the inside of a courtroom who have never been charged with a crime have not had due process which is their constitutional right would have

been unthinkable and it's something now that happens every every so often every few weeks every few months and there is no public outrage i think this is a very dangerous development. and john kiriakou was also a guest on abbe martin's breaking the set he told about he told us of the different torture techniques used by the cia also more in his case and the implications in the in-depth interview later this hour on breaking the sad. do you think that the real people who oversaw codified torture john you alberto gonzales and donald rumsfeld shouldn't they be the ones sitting in prison john think they should be the ones in there are others even if you just put aside the people who actually did the day to day torture what about the people who conceived of the policy and who implemented the policy where the attorneys that papered over it with with crazed legal analysis or the man who who destroyed evidence of the torture in the tapes.

france's president francois hollande is planning a trip to mali to survey what's been held as successful military intervention against islamist the french acknowledged however that the operation is now entering a tricky phase which is likely to involve guerrilla tactics from extremist observers say the three week long fighting has spread more havoc across the country with civilians paying a bloody price for it we've got the story of one of the victims brought to us exclusively by local journalists gonzalo want. what if that's but the war became a real nightmare for the people of this small city in the say good region it was one of the first places bombed by french warplanes before more jihadist arrived sweeping south towards the capital bamako the french intervention left a pile of debris and ashes that's just the visible traces of the war they left it

civilians who are left with the scars that will last a lifetime one family paid a deep price for this conflict against the islamist terrorists one of the family sons was killed by a jihadist soldier inside his own home. late my brother was attacked by a group of militants the rich children among them he started running and got back into our house but they followed him one of the children fired at him but missed and then another insurgent shot him inside the house my brother fell and was riddled with bullets we laid his body in the house we couldn't bury him because we were afraid to go outside. just because this is just one example of the terror that the conflict is putting mali and civilians through plaguing the weakest the most no one was surprised when india bali once jihadist troops arrived it was discovered that the majority of the military were heavily armed child soldiers. as frauds prepares to hand over the operation in mali to local troops which are increasingly

being accused of atrocities on our to dot com we've got exclusive footage allegedly showing evidence of war crimes by the troops there we also have more stories from people on the ground about how they are living through the western lead probable against islamists. and coming your way later this hour a serious opposition group slams israel over an air strike on syrian territory amid fears the reported bombing could spark a sharp rise in anti israeli sentiment among islamic groups in the region. we gauge the grueling eight hour senate confirmation session of the u.s. defense secretary nominee as he appears ready to give as much as it takes to get the job. a rocket with communications equipped onboard has strayed off course and plunged into the pacific ocean soon after takeoff the company responsible for the launches said it will look into why it happened here's

our tease you with the details. the zenith rocket with the u.s. communications satellite on board blasted off from the odyssey floating platform but to went off course almost immediately and its engines were switched off and it did into the pacific somewhere along the equator less than a minute after takeoff now on the equator the earth's rotation speed provides an additional booster rocket so they could carry more weight when it comes to launching from floating platforms besides looking or some there are advantages and disadvantages like there's a minimal risk of rockets falling down on inhabited areas but waves could be a problem in fact there is speculation that that could have been the case this story is a collaboration between russia in their gear and to us boring companies they've been working together since one thousand nine hundred five thirty four successful launches well this was supposed to be the first launch in two thousand and thirteen

sexual abuse harassment and loss of faith are the german catholics but later we investigate how much money and destroyed evidence house priests accused of serious crimes escape trial. apologetic poorly prepared is struggling to defend his views this is how critics and journalists scored barack obama's pick for the next defense secretary after his confirmation hearing in the senate chuck hagel did his best to prove the lawmakers that he's on the same page as them during an eight hour grilling or he's going to can listen to him to the stature. chuck hagel bent backwards to show how mainstream his views are the senators kept accusing him of not being mainstream enough and they kept using the word mainstream over and over again during this hearing chuck hagel has walked back on a number of positions he had taken earlier he kept apologizing again and again and chuck hagel went to great lengths to show that he is in no way going to challenge washington's core foreign policy beliefs as one of the senators put it it was quite

an exhausting hearing considering the senators were asking almost the same questions and roughly eighty percent of them had to do with chuck hagel previous statements on israel and iran there was so much mentioning of israel that at some point they were confirming him as secretary of defense for israel i couldn't count how many times he said all options are on the table with regards to iran again and again saying a strike on iran is an option an option that he had previously called irresponsible by the way here's what chuck hagel kept repeating throughout the hearing get the united nations behind you get the international sanctions behind you keep military options on the table if the military option is the only option it's the only option one of the senators pointed out during the hearing that in a private conversation senator hagel recently told him that he thought sanctions didn't work and previously chuck hagel voted against sanctions but today's chuck hagel as we found out during this hearing is for sanctions to those who believe mr

haye go was in favor of direct negotiations with iran as he had previously claimed he was he offered a correction a very vague one he tried to blur his response as much as he could here's what he said i don't have a problem with engaging i think great powers engaging in gauge mint is clearly in our interest that's not negotiation engagement is not appeasement engagement is not sure under so no direct negotiations with iran here's another example of how chuck hagel had to walk back on some of this pretty. statements at one time he said and this has become a famous quote the political reality is that the jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here i've always argued against some of the dumb things they do because i don't think it's in the interest of israel and of quote here's chuck hagel during this confirmation hearing noted that i. did i should have used another term and i'm sorry and i regret i didn't do your use of intimidation. i should have

used influence. i think would have been more appropriate i should not have said dumb or stupid. because i understand appreciate there are different views in these things it was like torture watching the hearing because it seemed as if the senators were not there to question chuck hagel but they were there to break him because they kept going back to his previous statements and pushing and pushing until he said what they wanted to hear and he did it so whoever thought chuck hagel was going to offer a new outlook on u.s. foreign policy after this hearing would seriously doubt that the founder of the wide awake news dot com website charlie mcgrath thinks militarism is deep rooted in the us foreign policy and it's not going to go away any time soon. president obama was elected in two thousand and a we you know the same kind of hope to mizzen was there with shutting down gitmo

and ending these wars and fighting the right kind of wars but then we find out when you know after the deal is done after the elections are over the nomination process is over we continue with our war footing around the world no matter what the politicians come before those cameras and tell you what the key factors are that we need to take care of it be a social safety nets or the economy or or jobs being created in this country the united states will always have money for two things you can be rest assured bakers and bullets we already see the headlines coming out of the mainstream media talking about the sequester and how this is going to get our military we will have nonstop propaganda being a bombarded out of the people the fear of reducing the budget of the military so i'm absolutely confident that whoever is secretary of defense will have a very very loose pocketbook to spend to keep spending us into oblivion and remember we try to give you the chance to have a say on the topics we cover at our to dot com today we're asking why hagel stance

on iran has become more hawkish let's have a look at some of the options we've given you is it a genuine change in position perhaps it's a ploy to counter criticism like we heard from going to being anti israeli does not matter at all will his position have no fluence on the actual iran policy or is it just proving his very own claim that no one can stand up to the u.s. lobby let's take a look at how the numbers are playing out so far at r.t. dot com. there we go about half of our viewers do you think that it in fact does prove israeli lobby is too powerful to make a difference about a third say it makes no difference at all that iran policy will be as it is whether it's hagel or anyone else twenty two percent believe that it's a ploy to counter criticism that he is in fact anti israel israeli or at least his of his statements are and two percent the smallest percent of you in fact think

that it's a genuine change in stance that he is more. perhaps behind being more aggressive in terms of war and foreign policy as opposed to being against it before but like i said head on to our to dot com and have your say we're going to take a short break and i'll be back with more news stay with our team. technology innovation all the developments around russia. the future of harvard. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so for like sleep you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm target market is a big. news

today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. showing operation to rule the day. welcome back you're watching our live from moscow i want to go back to our top story breaking news this hour on that blast in ankara bringing you some of the latest figures again it's a developing story but so far it seems like one of the killed one of the killed is

reported to be a suicide bomber who detonated his device as he was trying to enter a building security has been tightened around the embassy as there are fears of perhaps a second blast and emergency teams are working at the scene u.s. embassies have been a target for islamist across the middle east and north africa again the latest pictures here of that blast in ankara outside a u.s. embassy. going to stay in the region syria's key opposition group has joined the chorus of outrage over what the regime says was an israeli bombing near damascus and the national coalition flamby air strike on a military research center inside syria as an attack on the country's sovereignty well the government has pledged to retaliate so many sexperts however take the rebels condemnation of the israeli attack with caution because the reported bombing of the site actually plays into their hands. the main thing right now is to

remember that this comes on the heels of systematic targeting of syrian says by the syrian free army and the syrian opposition also i'd like to remind you that the syrian opposition has already thought of a radar station on the edges of the golan heights last year so this comes as a continuation of the afford to. royd the syrian army by the opposition and now by the masters themselves by the israelis so what we are witnessing now is a reflection of the political impasse that the syrian opposition as suffering from being able to achieve anything significant on the ground they have resorted to help from the zionists directly i don't think that is a policy of making public comments of strikes be it

a sudden asians or strikes that they launch outside the boundaries of international law. iran has threatened israel with consequences following the airstrike iranian academic and political analyst mohammad marandi says israel should take this warning seriously what is important is that the united states knew about their strike before hand they did nothing about it the european union as usual is silent about it there is no condemnation for killing syrians two for bombing the country for of course iran will defend syrian sovereignty the iranians have many means to hurt the israelis to punish the israelis it doesn't necessarily mean that they have to be involved directly they could. support countries or bodies that could make life for israelis more difficult serious

blows to the reputation of the german catholic church have resulted in more and more worshippers turning their backs on it child abuse and sexual harassment cases committed by priests that don't even get to court are seen as the main reason for dramatically shrinking congregations you may find some of the details in peter over his report disturbing. the abuse of trust the destruction of faith the theft of innocence. in one nine hundred seventy nine i was invited to his house he locked the doors and forced me to drink what i now know was alcohol. he asked me what i thought of his penis which was a wrecked then the priest made me perform oral sex on him. the catholic church in germany is facing a crisis attendances dropped significantly over the past few years according to the

central committee of german catholics one hundred eighty thousand parishioners stopped going to mass in twenty ten alone many citing church hierarchy unwillingness to do enough about claims of abuse like the ones made by wilfred the priest at the center of this particular scandal is now being moved to a different parish while this church where its alleged abuses took place remains closed to worshippers but just how difficult is it to bring a criminal prosecution in cases like this if those people go to court now it's very difficult to get to a sentence because the richness is sometimes died in between the memory has got lost and so those attempts to get to have a trial usually fail christine pfeiffer had been in charge of an extensive study into abuse in the german catholic church dating back as far as nineteen forty five his research claims that the church destroyed files on priests involved in abuse up

to ten years also that twelve hundred victims were paid hush money not to reveal what happened to them he was dismissed after a dispute with senior clergy over what information would be made public the scandal that this research is no not going to be finished. it's causing problems to them as well now they're losing members because of the new headlines of the last few weeks there are those within the church that recognize the importance of transparency of lapsed catholics but to be brought back to the flock a woman. thing and when we do not make things clear there will always be an aftertaste that something is being covered up this will harm attempts to get people into church because it is a bad foundation for trust and all belief is based on trust. for wilfrid that trust has been lost he says he will never set foot to the church

a good he's committed to getting compensation for himself and those others who claim they were abused by people who were supposed to be in a position of responsibility peter all over r.t. germany a look now at some world news in brief this hour a truck loaded with fireworks has exploded in central china killing twenty six people the blast brought down parts of a race highway sending vehicles plummeting thirty meters to the ground below it isn't yet clear what caused the explosion and emergency workers are on the scene searching for survivors. a bomb blast in northwest pakistan has left twenty people dead and injured more than forty on a crowded street with both shia and sunni mosques police say a motorcycle packed with explosives was detonated killing worshippers who were leaving after friday prayers no group has yet said it's responsible for the attack but the incident happened close to pakistan's semi autonomous tribal region with

a strong taliban and al qaeda presence. returning to our breaking news this hour these are live pictures from ankara where at least two people are reported dead and many injured after an explosion outside the u.s. embassy in the turkish capital and media sources inside turkey suggest that one of those killed was a suicide bomber detonated his device as he was trying to enter the building there are also reports that it was two guards that died in the blast security has been tightened around the embassy as there are fears of a second blast emergency teams are now working at the scene u.s. embassies have been target for is the most across the mideast and north africa and recent months again these are the latest pictures coming out of ankara where breaking news outside the u.s. embassy. we will continue to follow that story in the meantime coming up it's abby

martin and breaking the sad. you know i can kind of sort of understand the mindset of an evil dictator i have trouble understanding what is going on or maybe not going on in the minds of the terrified cogs who believe all the propaganda give up all their rights for the illusion of safety to coach jerry seinfeld who are these people well maybe some of them maybe working at your local school bring the director of the pennsylvania school suspended a kindergartner note kindergartner as a terrorist threat because she threatened to shoot another student with a gun but shoot soap bubbles i guess this was all a mix up because the girl she wanted to shoot didn't understand that it was in the .